One year from now
"C'mon, run that stop sign. You know you want to."
Lilly Pages watches as the station wagon approaches the stop sign from the comfort of her sheriff's car. With hope in heart and glee in her mind, she watches as the old station wagon approaches the stop sign. Giving someone a ticket at 12:30 in the morning is the only excitement that she wants on the clear starry night. To her disappointment, she watches as the beaten up wagon stops at the intersection.
"C'mon!" yells Lilly at the car even though she knew very well that no one in that old wagon would hear her. In fact, they did not even see her. She is parked a block away from the intersection.
Lilly leans back in her car seat as she watches the station wagon continues on its way.
"Seriously. This town can be so boring sometimes." remarks Lilly.
Lilly looks around in her car to see nothing to entertain herself. While she had her cell phone with her, she also knows that she has only thirty percent left on the battery. With only eight hours remaining in her shift and no car charger in the car, Lilly wants to preserve some life in that phone. Her stomach decides now is a perfect time to add to her misery by growling at her.
She opt to turn on the radio to take her mind off of her stomach. The radio blasts some current pop singer trying to sing about some bad boy that did not love her.
Lilly rather hears the silence of the night as she turns the radio off. She starts to fidget her necklace that she is wearing.
Lilly has become something that she never expected to be: She is a pillar of the community. She is a deputy for Storybrooke, a small town with a huge secret that no one outside the town lines would know.
If you told her seven years ago that she would be someone respectable, Lilly would have laugh. She was a waitress that was trying to stay legit although she did not hesitated in stealing someone's wallet when she did not have enough for the rent. She even faked her own death. Not the ideal person to be considered for a position in law enforcement.
Now she is wearing a deputy uniform, is carrying a firearm legally, and is carrying a badge. The Anti-Savior and former thief assigns to protect and to serve the small town and the citizens that lives here.
Nope. It still did not compute in Lilly's head.
Like most job, being a deputy did have its downside. Tonight, she has the night shift. If nothing weird happens, town becomes a quiet peaceful place. For her, it becomes a boring place to patrol.
The only problem with this town is the fact that it had only two setting: Peaceful and boring or chaotic and brutal.
Neither options is what Lilly wants.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
Of course, the knocking on her patrol car's window did scare her out of her seat.
"What the?" She turns around to see a person holding a pizza box in his hands. Without any hesitation, she unlocks the door. It could be Jack the Ripper outside her car, but holding a pizza box trumps everything. She forgot to eat before her shift.
The guy opens up the car door and gets into the car. Lilly, slightly relieved that it is not Jack the Ripper, takes the box out of his hand and opens it up. It is a large hot pizza with everything on it. Lilly smiles at the sight.
"Hello, handsome!" said Lilly.
"Hello to you, too." said Matthew Donovan as he closes the car door.
"I was talking to the pizza." Lilly lays the box on her lap and takes a slice of pizza and shoves it in her mouth.
"I figured." said the Matt as he smiles.
"Wmph amp yap moinginm mere?" said Lilly with a mouthful of pizza.
"Chew your food before you talk, Lilly." said Matt as he chuckles at the sight. The brown haired woman, while is attractive, did have some habits that Matt did not like. Speaking with food in her mouth is one of them.
Lilly proceeds to chew her food to Matt's amusement. Matt Donovan is the only person in the town that did not look at her with suspicion. He also did not let her get away with anything. It helps that he did not come from this town so he did not have anything to go on when it comes to the people living in this town. He can have an objective view about this town and its people.
It explains why he was the one that wanted her to be his partner.
Unlike Lilly, Matthew Donovan is the sheriff in StoryBrooke.
"I said, what are you doing here?" said Lilly as she finishes up her slice. "Aren't you on vacation?"
"Long story short. It sucks." said Matt as his smile disappears from his face.
"What happened?" asks Lilly.
"Same crap, different year." said Matt as he takes a slice from the pizza. Lilly could hear a bit of venom in his tone. The happy face is replaced by a brooding look, which is very foreign on him even with a slice of joyous pizza in his mouth.
"Talk." commands Lilly.
Matt looks at her with a look as he chew his slice of pizza.
"Don't give me that look. I have the late shift that you were supposed to cover, but you left on your "vacation." Leaving me to deal with Emma and Regina and Snow White, who by the way did not have any problem with you leaving, which means that they know what is going on with you and I don't know. Not cool by the way. I am supposed to know what is going on with your life. Not to mention, this two star town is boring after midnight. This pizza makes up for the fact you left me for a week, but it does not makes up for the fact that I am covering for you tonight. So, tell me what happened?"
Matt takes a deep breath as Lilly takes another slice.
"I got a call from one of my buddies."
"Tyler or Jeremy?"
"Tyler. He has been keeping an eyes on my friends. Anyway, there is a situation that has been going on for the past year and he has been keeping me up to date on."
"What kind of situation?"
"The kind that we want to avoid as long as we are dealing with Mr. Hyde."
"Bad news?"
"Murderous vampires news."
"OK. Really bad news."
"That is putting it mildly. So, the bad news was in Boston when Tyler called."
"How does he know?" ask Lilly as she finished up her slice and take another slice.
"Vampires are not subtle."
"Gotcha."
"So, he went to Boston to check it out. He wanted back up, so I went down."
"And?"
"We were too late. All we found was a warehouse filled with their handiwork. I am surprised that they did as much damages as they did without getting noticed." said Matt. Lilly could see that Matt is going back to that place. Whatever it was, it had to be bad. Matt does not take time off. "Lilly, it was bad. If they come into this town with everything that is going on, this town would be gone within a week."
"That is bad."
"We don't have the manpower to deal with them and Hyde's stuff. This town couldn't survive it. That is another reason that I went. I had to be sure that they did not come our direction."
"Well, if it makes you feel better, I got your back. If they come around here, they have me to deal with." said Lilly with a smile. The brooding look on Matt's face is being replaced by his own smile.
"Actually it does." answer Matt.
Matt Donovan rarely talks about Mystic Falls. The moment he arrived in this town, he never brought it up unless he had to. That has been a year and six months. Give or take a month. As far as Lilly knows, the only friends that he talks to from his hometown are Tyler and Jeremy. The rest of his friends were doing something that he did not want to be in. Not anymore. Lilly figures that the vampires did a number on him.
As far as Lilly is concerned, Mystic Fall is bad news.
"Good, now entertain me for a few hours. I really hate this shift." said Lilly as Matt chuckles.
NOW
Matt looks at the road map and wonders where to go.
Matt has to find a better life. There is no question about it. The problem is that he did not know what that would look like. He tries to imagine it in some way or some form. The only thing that he can see is darkness. Not the lack of hope darkness, but the lack of imagination darkness.
He wonders which is worse.
Since he could not see it, he is going to do the second best thing: He is going to cross off items on a bucket list, specifically Vicki's and Penny's bucket list.
When Vicki was little, she wanted to visit the weirdest sites on each state like the home of the largest chair in Casey, IL. Matt does not remember where this fascination came from. It simply stuck for a good ten years until she discovered boys.
When Penny was hungry, she wanted to eat a pizza. Every Friday was pizza day. She would stop by a different pizza place. She had the quest of finding the best pizza in the United State. After all this time, it was scary to Matt on how much pizza she can eat.
Since these bucket list were easy, Matt took it upon himself that he would cross these bucket list off while he figured out where he would go from here.
Seven states later, Matt realize that he might have to slow down on eating so much pizza.
That is why he is sitting in a booth in a diner, eating a salad and drinking water with a map laid out beside him.
Matt is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a stomach that did not want any pizza today. After he found the World's Largest Yogi Bear and took a picture, he found a diner to get something to eat. He sat down at a booth and ordered. With a quick service from the waitress, Matt could focus on his next big decision: Continuing going up the coast or going inward. Matt, however, make a note of the red dots on the map.
Those dots represents Damon's and Enzo's killing grounds. Bodies have been found on those locations. It was not just one body. It was several bodies draining of their blood. Matt heard that one officer quit the force after he saw the bodies.
Matt still had contacts. They were keeping him up to date with what is going on especially with Damon and Enzo going on a murderous rampage. Even though it was not his fight, Matt did not want to meet either one in a dark alley.
Keeping track on where they might have been is a smart way from not dying.
Matt takes another sip from his glass of water.
"Mr. Donovan?" Matt's thoughts disappears as he looks up to see a woman with black hair wearing a gray suit and skirt standing in beside the booth. She is carrying a manila envelope. Nothing is out of place. There is a careful planning on how she has dressed.
"Yes." reply Matt.
"Hello, my name is Regina Mills. I am the mayor of Storybrooke." She extends her hand out. Matt stand up from his seat and shakes her hand.
"Nice to meet you. How can I help you?" Matt motions for her to sit. She sits across the table from Matt. Matt sits down. He quickly scan the map of Pennsylvania to find the town and wondering how did she know who he was.
"I am hoping that we can help each other. I am here to offer you a job." said Regina. Matt stop scanning and places his full attention on the Mayor.
"I am sorry. Can you repeat that?" It did not sound right, but he just wanted to hear the statement one more time for it to register.
"I am here to offer you a job."
"Why?" The statement just seem too ludicrous to be true.
"Let me explain." Matt can see that she is looking for a way to explain. He could see it. While it might look like she had a poker face, Matt could see how her body is behaving. It is subtle. It helps to have been lied to so many times.
"Storybrooke is a small secluded community in Maine. When something happens, everyone knows about it. It is annoying to say the less. Anyway, something has happened...it has divided our sheriff department's attention. To put it in smaller words, we don't have the manpower to deal with it. We need help and I feel that you can help us out." explains Regina.
"Ok. But why me?" asks Matt. The explanation is missing something: How did the Mayor in Maine found out about him. "I am sure that they are plenty of people in your town that would be qualify to help you."
"Let's be honest with each other." said Regina. "I know where you are from."
Matt looks at her, waiting for the explanation that he is hoping for.
"I know that you used to be the sheriff of Mystic Fall. I know that you had a good record over there and the Mayor at Mystic Fall was very disappointed in the fact that you resigned."
"Ok."
"With our current situation, I need a sheriff who has experience in the position. I don't have time to train anyone and I need help now. Through….unorthodox means, your name came up."
Matt looks at the Mayor with skepticism. Unorthodox means is not a good answer.
"Look. I appreciates the offer, but I am pretty sure that I am not a good fit for you or your town. I hate to say it, but I am going to have to decline the job." reply Matt. He starts folding up the map.
He did not want to admit it, but Matt felt that his tenure as a sheriff was a failure. He accidentally killed his fiancee. He had helped create a new form of vampire. He could not even help one of his best friends out.
No. He is definitely not qualified.
"Look...I can see that you are skeptical. I would be too if a stranger came to me and offer me a job. That means that you are not stupid. May I?" Regina extends her hand toward map. Matt hands the map to her. Regina start to scan it She then fold the map to have show the state of Maine. She place her finger on a specific spot. Matt look at where she had point and see in small letters: Storybrooke. She slides the map toward Matt.
Why don't you visit our town? While you are there, I can tell you why we need someone like you." said Regina. Matt takes the map from Regina. She then places the manila envelope in front of Matt. "This envelope will list your starting salary and benefits that I can give you."
"Um..Thanks." said Matt, not knowing how he should feel about this development.
"If I do not see you within the next two weeks, I will assume that you are not interested in the job and the offer will be rescinded. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, ma'am." answers Matt.
"Good." said Regina as she gets up from her seat. "I hope you do come and visit us I would like you to see our town.
Regina walks away, leaving Matt bewildered from the conversation.